Fiber optic cable is in wide use to carry communication signals. The fiber optic cable enables increased capacity and other benefits over prior transmission mediums. Each fiber optic cable contains multiple individual fiber strands, each of which can carry communication signals.
Individual optical wavelengths within each fiber strand can be used to carry individual communication signals. These individual optical wavelengths, sometimes referred to herein as lambdas, are used to provide a unique path for a communication signal over a fiber strand.
Many methods are used to increase capacity or to segregate traffic on the fiber strands. For example, dense wave division multiplex (DWDM) systems are used for such purposes. However, existing infrastructures and new infrastructures are not being used to fully take advantage of bandwidth availability of fiber optic cable. Thus, a new system and method are needed to use existing infrastructures and new infrastructures so that different types of communication signals can be transported over a single fiber strand.